


Years Gone

by Proxinge



Category: Beauty and the Beast - All Media Types
Genre: Acceptance, Childhood Friends, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Self-Acceptance, Self-Conscious Beast
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2018-11-05 03:14:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11004783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Proxinge/pseuds/Proxinge
Summary: The beautiful and charming Princess of the nearby kingdom finds herself in an unwanted marriage, but to avoid her people being caught in the crossfire she runs to her childhood friend Adam for aid. No one had heard a word of him for years, or to be no one had even heard of him. But he has to be alive right? He has to help.





	1. Executing a Plan

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY I actually tried to make this legible, and the story has been running in my mind constantly for the past week. I decided to dump this here, hopefully, it turns out okay? This WILL be a chapter by chapter fanfiction! Updates will happen frequently! (Crosses fingers) Please leave comments, friendly criticism is greatly appreciated!

Once Upon a time in a land far away in France, there lived a princess who was known for her intelligence and beauty. The only problem this princess had was that she was to be married to a man who was only interested in power and war. And while she had no problem with marrying a stranger, this concerned her people. And she would do anything for her people. Her father, the King, demanded united kingdoms and marriage. And the best way to defeat an enemy was to keep them in your pocket, and in your bedsheets.

One week away from your wedding date you had an Idea. Adam. Your childhood friend, he had fallen off the face of the earth ten years ago. Being a little girl then you had no idea what happened, after his mother's passing and her funeral Adam had changed, you no longer were invited over to the Castle you spent so many summers playing in. And once the news of his father’s death no one spoke a word of it since. Your father had never spoken of it, and his advisor’s books had no record of the Prince’s kingdom. It was like no one had ever heard of the place you had once called a second home.

Surely, Adam had an army to spare to save your people from Prince Louis’ wrath. You remembered the multitude of men the palace held. They were skilled soldiers, you reassured yourself. You would be damned to hell before you let him take hold of your people, and you for that matter.

Your home was easy to navigate, most of the servants were asleep, and the ones you saw in the passages never gave you any mind. You silently praised yourself for procuring a maid’s outfit before executing your plan.

It rained hard when you left the sounds of thunder, and the crashes of lightning started your heart tenfold; you pulled the tattered cloak around yourself once again trying to retain a fraction of warmth. To make matters worse passage through the hills was bumpy and the full cart you hitchhiked on sat four delightful but rowdy boys. But you were determined, the excitement flowed through your bones. You hadn’t seen him in ten years, and you wondered what he would look like, would he have his father’s strong jawline and brow, his mother’s kind eyes? Those blue eyes never left your memory, and you thought about them every day. You missed him dearly. The journey was long and strenuous, caring for little children for more than three weeks took its toll on you. But the small village you vaguely remembered stopping in before arriving at the castle came into view. It took all your willpower to not jump out of the cart and scream in joy.

Everything in the village was exactly how you remembered it; even the people didn’t change. Though some were balding and fine lines and wrinkles creased their faces you smiled. The cobblestones and shutters, the bell. It all was the same.

The cart stopped, and you waved to the kind family that took you in for three weeks. The children yelled their goodbyes repeatedly. When they were out of sight, you smiled and took to the nearest tavern hoping to get some news of the castle or the man who resided there.

The door creaked open, and a few men decorated the inn, one stood out the most though. He sat proudly in his chair, and his glass of amber liquid swirled slowly. At the creak of the door the man looked over to you and his eyebrows instantly raised in curiosity. You decided to not indulge in his stare. Instead, you went over to the tavern maiden and asked for a place to stay the night, and handed her the fair.

She smiled instantly at you and told you to follow her; you could feel the eyes on you. You knew they weren't the kind sort either. Once you reached your room, you turned and locked the door. The bed looked so plush and welcoming compared to the uncomfortable wooden bench you sat on for weeks. You never knew being on a cart for so long could be so taxing on the body.

      You dreamed that night, and it was of those deep cerulean eyes.


	2. A Rose?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “A rose?” you walked and inspected it closer. It glowed, it was beautiful. So beautiful you could almost touch it.

To say the morning came early would be a vast understatement, the peaceful birds twittered to their heart's content outside and the bustle of the small town carried softly through your window. You inwardly groaned, weeks on a cart and then suddenly being able to sleep in a real bed was so nice that your body didn’t want to move until noon.  

That was until you realized that you would be seeing your best friend today, that thought catapulted you out of your bed and over to your mirror. 

‘Lord… my hair…’ You started at the birds nest you called your hair and groaned again, usually your maidservants did this for you, but thankfully your mother had made sure that you knew how to fix your appearance on your own. “how do you expect a Queen who isn’t even competent enough to fix her appearance to run a country?” we’re her exact words you believe. It had taken a while but you got the braid right, with your cheeks rouged and dress on you were ready to meet your longtime best friend. 

 

Acquiring a horse was rather difficult when you were a young woman who looked like she sat on her derrière for a living. The young man handling the horses looked to be no more than two years older than you, and he still had the audacity to treat you like you like you were a child. 

“Monsieur I assure you, I’m quite capable of handling a horse. I’ve been riding since I was five years old.” You said in a stern voice. This was insane, were all woman treated like incompetent fools? 

“Where is your husband miss? Send him over and I’ll be happy to give him the horse.” He carried brushing his horse being inconsiderably rude. 

You sighed inwardly and calmed yourself,  plenty of nobles had the same idea that women were second class. You know how to end this pointless conversation. 

“I’m not married Monsieur.” You dipped your voice low in the way your mother taught you. That definitely caught his attention. 

“I’m sure a strong and handsome man like yourself has already got himself a beau.” You trailed your index finger along his arm and smiled through half-lidded eyes. 

“N-no miss.” He stuttered. Men were so easily swayed you said to yourself. 

“Isn’t that a wonderful coincidence, could you be a dear and saddle this beautiful stallion for me? I would be ever so grateful.” You batted your eyelashes at him. 

“Of course miss.” He wasted no time lifting the saddle and attaching the reins to the horse. 

When the horse was ready you brought a bag of coin out of your satchel and gave it to the young man.  

“Is this enough for your beautiful stallion?” he nodded slowly, you were sure that you could’ve gotten away with just taking the horse. But you weren’t a thief, you were a princess.  

You hoisted yourself with no problem, this dress wasn’t as nice as the riding gear you usually wore but it was doable. You nodded goodbye with a smile to the horse handler and set off south to the forest.  

 

Navigating the forest was easy, there was only one path and the only wildlife was rabbits and small foxes. Come to think of it, you probably should’ve brought some form of weapon with you. You vaguely remember your father and Adam’s hunting wolves in this forest. You sent a silent prayer to god and continued your journey.  

It had been about two hours until you came to a familiar branch off leading to Adams home. You started to think again what he would look like, tall like his father? His eyes are really the only thing you remember about his appearance.  

It started to get colder, you noticed. Then small little snowflakes fell from the darkening gray sky. Strange, it’s only October you thought. You pulled your hood up trying to retain some warmth. 

Your stallion ears twitched, and you looked around nervously. “What is it, boy?”  

A second later your horse took off, it was then you heard the howl of the Alpha. It’s voice vibrated into the sky and one by one you heard more. Branches smacked into your face so you just ducked into your horse blindly trusting its instincts to get you to where you needed to go. 

Then you saw the lake, you knew exactly where you were. If you followed the road around the lake- or go straight over it, you would make it to Adam. Judging by the speed of your horse you didn’t really have a say in the matter. 

 

Over the lake it was. Duke, you so decidedly named your horse to be, didn’t fancy getting eating by wolves. Neither did you, so you differed to his judgment of how thick the ice was, not the smartest idea to leave your fate up to a horse but really. AGAIN you weren’t in the position to speak up. 

The howls and the growling got closer and you looked back, a pack of 10 or 12 huge wolves was on your heel. The black one with a large scar running across his face you figured to be the alpha. You kicked into Duke and urged him to give his all, both of your lives depended on it.  

You were running out of the lake to run on and you could see the road to the castle. One. Last. Push.  

CRACK 

No. you are way too damn close to give up now. But apparently the Lord had a sense of humor and you and Duke fell through the ice.  

You knew it would be cold. You really did. But you did not expect your muscles to contract into a “frozen” state. Duke though had the better idea to keep on fighting, breaking the ice to the edge of the lake. You looked behind you and the wolves had to run around the growing hole in the lake, a couple of wolves fell into the lake themselves.  

Ha. Take that you hungry demons. 

Duke bless his heart made it to the edge of the lake and still continued to run. The wind paired with the water chilled you to your very bone but your adrenaline was too high to really register the pain. The wolves were back but far enough that you couldn’t make out their faces.  

The Castle gates were finally in sight, you started yelling that the guards to open. 

“PLEASE, OPEN THE GATE! THE WOLVES!” you screeched at the top of your lungs.  

Duke ran closer and closer and the gates didn’t move a budge. You braced for impact, it came. Harder than you prepared for, but you were through. The gates wouldn’t close themselves so you jumped or more like fell and rolled onto your back. The howls grew closer and you scrambled to the gate, pushing with all your might it inched to its close.  

“COME ON!” It was getting to the point where the Black Demon was close enough to lunge.  

Then you heard the latch. And then the wolves fell into the gate, not without grabbing a hold of your arm though. 

“PUTAIN” You screamed. 

You fell to the ground and grasped for anything hard, something heavy, hard was in your digits and you brought it down with a force you didn’t know that you possessed. A loud whine was heard, and sweet release was given. You scrambled back cradling your forearm, looking at your assailant. His face was bloody and his teeth were bared for just you to see. 

You spat. “Black Demon.” 

The wolves slinked away one by one, their backs still bristled. You allowed yourself a moments peace on the cold hard ground. 

Here you were shivering, frostbitten no doubt, blood slowly oozed out of your left forearm, and scared half to death. Where the hell was everyone? You would’ve expected a patrol of guards to come running to your aid by now. And where was Duke? 

You rolled to your side and onto your knees, breaths of air coming out in a white puff. It was full-blown winter here. Something strange is going on here. You needed to find Adam.  

The foliage was still alive surprising enough, roses still sprouted under the soft blanket of snow, their smell still as fragrant as they would be in summer.  

You looked at the statues, gargoyles decorated the grounds. Not angels. Had Adam done that?  

Walking was hard, especially when your dress clung to your every move. A chilling howl blew through the courtyard.  With nervous thoughts, your legs hurried along to the castle.  

The castle was just as grand as you remembered it, the grandeur of it never failed to impress even the highest noble. But one thing bothered you, there were no lights, no sounds of life from inside. What happened to this place? 

You knocked on the castle door, it opened and you walked in expecting to find a servant. But… Was nobody there?   

“Hello? Adam?” you shivered, this place… it wasn’t what you remembered you thought quietly. All the gold fixtures and marble had been dulled, covered in what looked like years of dust.  

“Adam! Please, I need your help! My father he" You stopped and looked at the fireplace, it wasn’t lit a moment ago. Though you were too tired to care, you ran to the flame and peeled off layers of stiff fabric. Gingerly taking off the fabric from your arm you inspected it in the light, not too bad considering. A few puncture holes, though if your arm was fractured you couldn’t tell, you could move your wrist and fingers well enough though it still hurt like the devil. You ripped the frozen fabric from your dress and dried it by the fire. Tightly wrapping it around your arm you inspected your handiwork, not too bad for a princess huh? And father thinks I’m some fragile little bird, you told yourself.  

 

 

“Is that the young princess?” Your head whipped around to see where the voice came from. Just dust and the light flickering off of furniture, you must be hearing things. 

“Not so young anymore, look how beautiful she is!” you jumped up. 

“Who’s there? Please, I need to see Prince Adam! It’s urgent.” You pleaded. 

You picked up the golden candelabrum, searching for the voices you heard. Like they would be found if you showed light on them. 

“Mademoiselle?” You looked down at the candle, eyes and a mouth was carved delicately into the gold inlay.  

“Did you just…” you spoke slowly, you must be going crazy this is all some elaborate dream. 

“You’ve gone and done it now Lumiere!” An elaborate table clock waddled to you,  clearly upset with the candle. 

“I did Mademoiselle.” You froze, a candle and a clock just… spoke like it had every right and reason to. 

You really couldn’t say anything, I mean what else would be the appropriate response other than-  

“MON DIEU!” you dropped the golden candelabrum and backed into a moving coak rack? 

“ADAM! HELP ME!” you ran up the stairs and screamed, it was instinct to run to his room as you did so many years before. Nothing was there but old furniture. Maybe he took his parent's old room? Of course, he did. You ran to the west wing and slammed open the door. 

“ADAM THERE'S A TALKING CANDLE AND A TALKING CLOCK. THE COAT RACK JUST MOVED BY ITSELF!” You ran to the bed and flipped the covers, nothing but a whole mound of fur. It was then you took in the state of the room, everything was…ruined. Like a wild animal had a tantrum in here. You looked to the balcony and saw the only thing that was standing upright.  

“A rose?” you walked and inspected it closer. It glowed, it was beautiful. So beautiful you could almost touch it.  


End file.
